Chapter 6 - EMOTIONAL SEQUENCES AND CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

The maturation of the emotions of love, fear, and anger among socially reared primates, both human and nonhuman, customarily follows the same sequence. Three of the love systems—maternal love, infant love for the mother, and peer love—have every chance to become firmly established before the strong emotions of fear appear, and these, in turn, precede aggression with intent to harm. Social rearing requires exposure and experience with a biological mother or an adequate surrogate as well as agemate love accompanied by appropriate play. All of these contexts offer innumerable opportunities for the alleviation of both fear and aggression. The interlocking backgrounds of undesirable fears and violent aggression create a situation that allows the amelioration of these fears to aid in prevention of aggression. Should these early loves be prevented through the many avenues of deprivation or denial that are no respecters of economic levels, fear and aggression frequently fill the vacuum. Once established, the rehabilitation of the individual becomes very difficult; prevention of these extreme states is far more economical than is its treatment.